Sunday, June 1, 2008

Trying to Move Forward rather than Chasing my Tail



There are a few new things I have discovered or am trying this weekend which is really good after the frustration of my last post. I am thankful for the great comments from Paul that you can find under the post. He has a lot of great advice and new things to consider. They are well worth reading through.

I tried a new DVD related to Joint Mobility. It is called Magnificent Mobility. I liked the instruction and the movement related exercises. I felt real good after doing some of them before yesterday's run. The teaching and demonstrations were clear and I learned how to better do some moves like the "hip hiker" which I now get how to do by isolating the gluteus medius rather then the quadratus lumboron or other hip-back muscles. I will report more on this when I have more experience with it.

I saw a Running Cd-Rom on the internet a week ago. It is from HumanLab Sports in England. It promised a lot but I couldn't find many reviews from people who used it. I splurged and it came quickly (a week) from England. You plop it in a computer and it has you do some tests to discover biomechanical weaknesses (what I was really interested in). I did them but wasn't sure on some questions if I answered them correctly. It then provided me with only 3 exercises to do to help get me back in balance. (I may try the tests again with different answers to see if other options are given). Anyhow the exercises seem solid.



The first is similar to a joint mobility exercise I can never get right. It is where you hold your arms straight out to your side and move laterally back and forth. It is a Z-health and a Scott Sonnen drill. However in this case you are told to be seated rather than standing. The next exercise had me sit down and raise one leg 60 degrees and then hold the leg behind the knee and press down for 20 seconds. The third exercise I really like as I feel a lot of tightness when I try it. I was told to sit down and hold my arms out to the side. Then flex the elbows and touch my hands to the shoulders. I was then to rotate back and forth keeping my hips still. You can see a picture from the Cd-Rom above of how to hold your arms-unlike the CD-Rom you can wear clothes while doing the exercise! It tells you to do these for a certain mumber of repetitions three times a day. They are simple and maybe that is good. I guess some ab exercises are added at another point in time on the CD-Rom. We'll see how well these work.



Paul mentioned doing some "cross-crawl" motions to help the nervous system which may even be confused from other activities I have done. I looked it up and saw the simple movements that I saw where very sensible. The video above shows a cross crawl with the hands extended above the head. Most versions do not have your hands so high. I did them before my run today. I did the "Run" Cd and the Magnificent Mobility DVD before my run yesterday and felt a lot more balanced and enjoyed the run. The hips where I little more solid then they have been lately. Today I had another decent run. I did the "Run" Cd Rom and some cross-crawl routines before the run. The hips where trying to be a bit more stable and another nice run. I was able to push the last three miles a bit more and get the breathing rate up a few notches.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim,

I haven't a clue where you find all this info, but it sure is interesting.

Both those exercise DVD's look good by the way. I'm anxious to know how you make out. They appear doable....not too complicated. That exercise on the English DVD for correcting the pelvic imbalance is similar the Dorn method hip adjustment....I think.

Also, glad you found that cross crawl video. That's a good demonstration.

Oh yeah.....I ordered 3 Brain Gym books.....

It's a little freaky that the woman you helped interview mentioned the Brain Gym stuff in the same week we came up with the cross crawl thing.

Many thanks for all your cool discoveries....

Paul

Amy@RunnersLounge said...

This is really helpful information. My hips/knees are always a challenge for me and I am constantly on the look out for stretching/strengthening that works.

Amy
www.runnerslounge.com
blog.runnerslounge.com

Jim Hansen said...

Hi Paul,
I like the Magnificent Mobility. Good explanations and worthy exercises. Matt Fitzgerald who wrote "Brain Training for Runners" has a few of the exercises here: http://mattfitzgerald.org/article.php?id=16 He worked with Eric Cressey (one of the Magnificent Mobility guys) on the new book "Maximaum Strength". It is more for weight lifters but had some good stuff in there so I have read parts of it. I think the nutrition pages are related to the "Precision Nutrition" stuff I should receive this week. I am in no way a weight lifter type but I am reading a lot of the stuff that comes from these trainers.
I still have to look into the Brain Gym ideas. I did have my class do the cross crawl today for fun. Anything to keep them active. I don't think it helped their brains at all... they are done for the year!
Jim

Jim Hansen said...

Hi Amy,
Thanks for stopping by. I briefly checked out your blog and I'll need to spend more time there. Looks like your an expert at this. I am just new to blogging with a cranky body and a curious mind about what it will take to fix it!
Jim